


Curious

by Ukthxbye



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkward Tension, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Meetings, One Shot, POV Molly Hooper, Pre-Season/Series 01, Pre-Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, Sherlock Being Sherlock, Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2020, Too close for comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23106361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ukthxbye/pseuds/Ukthxbye
Summary: Molly Hooper finds herself avoiding the attention of one man at her new place of work but her solution to the problem opens a whole other can of worms.
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper
Comments: 16
Kudos: 67
Collections: Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2020





	Curious

"Um, that man won't stop flirting with me, so could you pretend to know me?"

She'd said it in a light but desperate breathy way she realized after the words already sat between them and she cut her eyes back and forth between the man across the way and the one before her. 

John Harrison persisted in staying at her side since orientation yesterday, regaling his school accomplishments and nary a word of hers. She'd been sure he'd find someone else to brag to, but no luck. Only when Harrison walked to get some punch and nibbles at their welcome party and staff mixer did her brain throw her this daring solution.  _ Too bad I didn't think it through more _ , she mused. 

This unfamiliar man, Sherlock Holmes the name he gave, had already asked a rather forward question about her five-year plans at St Barts before she even could tell her name. But he was hot. Posh all in black clothes tailored too tight and unkempt curls. Cheekbones she could cut samples on. Not everyone's type, but… it seemed he was hers for the moment. 

She admitted that to herself as he now stood much too close for propriety and this kind of professional gathering. She'd rid herself of one problem to find a taller, darker, handsomer one. 

Her jumper warm with him inches from her as she tugged at the neckline along her clavicle. His eyes fell to watch her hands. His scent best described as expensive, she thought as it radiated off him, his chest in line with her sight as she scanned up at his features. She'd expected him to smile, maybe block the other man's view of her. She'd predicted that well enough but backing her up against a wall, with a hand planted by her face, his thumb so close it could have brushed her ear a whole other level of help.

"Um…"

"Shh… give him a moment and he'll abandon any thought he had before about interrupting us."

Did he know when he stared into someone's eyes that long what that meant, she wondered, shifting her gaze to the side and around the room. Even as she looked away, the sound of his voice rang in her head, its low timber resonating as he asked her Harrison's position relative to them. 

"He's given up the game?"

"Perhaps still hanging around—"   
  


"We can continue our conversation then."

Her breath shortened, and she licked her lips and bit them, realizing too late how obvious her reactions. Nothing about this was what she wanted… probably. Her thoughts fought a battle between annoyance and compliance at her predicament. But his eyes were on his mobile and by the time they returned her, she'd slowed her heartbeat and affected a neutral face. 

She spoke first. "You didn't hav—"

"No trouble at all you seemed distracted and I only want to finish my questions without interruptions."

Her eyebrow rose at his statement. "Questions?"

He stared before asking, "What were your marks in your third year?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry but—"

"Third year usually when a lot of medical students drop out, course work  inten—"

Her eye narrowed as he looked up and down her face, but also beyond her as the word hissed out his teeth. 

"...  sefies " he drawled, and he blinked, staring into her eyes with a troublesome intensity.

"Um," she chuckled, nerves causing her to shrug, "Odd question but… I was in the top five of my class the entire time…" and she squinted. " I'm sorry was that the 3rd for basic medical or my general--"

He sighed. "No matter, I checked up on everyone and you were top 5 as you said."

Like a light switch, her brain flipped at his sigh.

She lifted her chin, "What position will you be working here? Didn't see you at orientation yesterday."

He snickered, "I don't work here… at least not employed."

The hair on her neck stood at attention as she frowned with folded arms across her chest. 

"Pardon? You do know that's rather creepy what the hell are you—"

He caught her glare and held it. "I require the assistance of a competent pathologist for my work with Scotland Yard."

Her eyebrow raised. "You're a detective? Where's your badge?"

He closed his eyes, and she welcomed the relief from their ocean like effect. He sighed, "Again… Not employed by them, I work  _ with  _ them."

She shook her head, feeling a contrasting kind of heat growing under her jumper, "The only reason you don't have a knee in the bollocks is—"

"Curiosity."

He'd answered it so matter-of-factly it paused her thoughts. She whispered, "What?"

"You… are curious. Advantageous to us both." He smiled a tiny smile, hiding a smirk, she realized. 

She closed her eyes in frustration and uncrossed her arms. She should  be scared or angry and get him chucked out of the hospital. But she took a deep breath, allowing her mind to put the puzzle together. He got at this level of the building through several security points. Access granted to this Mr. Holmes for some reason, logic assured that she needed more pieces.

"So you obviously have access to here, though—"

The faint chuckle and vibration of a "Hmm" from his throat cut off her ability to speak. "Excellent deduction." The corner of his lips curled up, and he turned to look across the room. His side profile stopped the air in her lungs and she swallowed the knot as she peered in the same direction, noting a cautious wave from a man she knew. She waved back with a similar questioning glance. 

"Stamford... an acquaintance of mine introduced me around…" Sherlock's stare pivoted back to her. "Except you."

Molly looked down and back up. Her eyes betrayed her, she suspected, and brought her fingers up to fidget with them and give herself a different visual target as she checked her nail beds. 

"I arrived a bit late," she said as nonchalantly as she could muster putting her hands down and looking around at anything but his eyes. 

"But still, I thank you for introducing yourself, Miss Hooper. You were late because you were working on some sampling. Chemicals are hard to get out of the clothes once they settle in, but the ones I detected… fresh."

She hadn't told him her name.  _ But obviously he knows it if he knows your grades from 3rd year _ , she mused. There's that scared, and a little bit angry, and a lot of questioning he's good at affecting, she thought.

"Yes… I guess you sussed out that I love my work and I'm... diligent?" She frowned and shook her head as her mouth hung open a moment in reflection. "Are you… if there something I can help you with—"

"I would like to offer a specific sort of relationship."

"P-Pardon?' she mumbled wide eyed at his word choice. 

"I need consistency in the autopsies performed on the murder victims I'm… helping. I want to trust one person and one person only for the work."

"Well ... I'm a specialty registrar pathologist and I don't always do autopsies now but..." she paused unsure what he would say next. 

"You're clearly more accommodating than your colleagues."

She huffed, "Is… is that because I let you put me against the wall?"

He smiled "Small test… You asked me to help you and then you allowed me to provide such help on my own terms even if it, as your body language indicated... pushed boundaries of decorum for such events as this. Appears to me an excellent sign of our future—"

Her finger at his sternum cut his speech off, and he stared at her hand and back at her with a furrowed brow. 

She'd thought of something biting and clever as he spoke. Her irritation bubbled up to words, but they popped to nothing soon as she sensed his heart beat under her fingertip. 

His eyes stayed steady on her. She needed to remove her finger, but no matter how much she stared at it, it didn't move.

He cleared his throat. "Is the origination of your request for my presence still required?"

Molly stared at his chest, finger unmoved no matter how much willed it so.  _ Why are you doing this _ , she yelled to herself in her  mind.

Sherlock sighed, "Because if you—"

Molly put on a grin as she looked up at him, letting  those ocean eyes hold hers once more. 

"Yes… I think so."

Sherlock blinked and pursed his lips. " Would you check so we can—"

  
  


"Yes! Sorry." She bit her lip as she patted his chest and peeked around him to assure Harrison was gone. 

With one more instantly regretted  pat , a nervous chuckle escaped her. "He's gone so—"

Sherlock already went from in front of her in a flash and to her side. She stared, locked in place as he buttoned his jacket and spoke.

"See you tomorrow in the morgue we'll discuss this arrangement in depth."

Molly started a "Thank you" but he'd already turned, headed for the door with just a nod to Stamford, and she finished it as a whisper to herself.  _ I need a stiff drink and a stiffer spine before tomorrow.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Mouse9 as always.
> 
> For Sherlolly appreciation week 2020- Wednesday prompt- "this person won't stop flirting with me please pretend to know me?
> 
> this is a one shot and will stay so


End file.
